The family of Lt. Adeyemi Sowole, the co-pilot of the Navy helicopter which crashed on Saturday in Bayelsa State have expressed disappointment that authorities have only reckoned with the dignitaries that died on the flight.
The co-pilot’s elder brother, Taiwo, said the government had not treated other victims as important as the two dignitaries – Gen. Andrew Azazi and Governor Patrick Yakowa – on board.
The deceased’s brother said, “All lives are equal. At this point, the right thing to do is for government to treat all the victims with respect and give them the same recognition.“But it seems as if only the dignitaries on board the helicopter died. Adeyemi is also important.“Adeyemi and a senior colleague lost their lives also. They are equally precious to their families. It was their responsibility to transport the dignitaries even though their own lives were on the line.”
Another family member, an aunt of the deceased, said “It’s like the people in government see our son and his colleague as unimportant. Is it only Azazi and Yakowa that died in that crash? Why can’t they sympathise with us as well? The incident happened and all they were talking about were the two government officials on board,” the aunt, who declined to give her name, stated.
Taiwo got the news about his brother’s death at 8pm on Saturday through one of his brothers.
“All we heard initially was that his helicopter crashed and we were praying at the time that it will turn out to be a hoax. We were hoping it would be a mistake because we thought Navy pilots only fly military personnel or the President and Vice-President,” he said.
To me, this is totally unfair. Are all lives not suppose to be equal?
Culled from PUNCH
No comments:
Post a Comment